>_____<;;

“ this, that, loser!” Victoria scolded from above. “Hurry and get Peter Pan out!”

Chorong cried in frustration, “I can’t believe this happened!”

Namjoo groaned and shoved a large piece of rock away, “I knew something stupid would happen! We’re always stuck with this kind of ty luck!”

“Can we stop with the ?” Victoria raised her squeaky voice.

“You know,” Chorong told grabbing a piece of rock, “it might be helpful if you could help us.” Then she turned around to stare at Victoria who was fluttering in the air and rolled her eyes. “Oh, I forgot.”

Victoria snorted, “Very funny!”

Chorong made a face and cocked her head back and forth. Namjoo broke out in laughter beside her.

“Will you two stop it!?” Victoria’s voice screeched.

“Will you two stop it?” Namjoo mimicked before she and Chorong broke out into louder laughter.

“I’m serious!” Victoria tweaked.

Chorong and Namjoo continued laughing before something moved and a piece of the cave rolled aside. The girls silenced in surprise as they waited for whoever it was to rise.

Was it the elf? Or Peter Pan?

There was a low growl that sounded slightly threatening. Chorong and Namjoo rose to their tiny feet before a head then a torso popped up.

“I’m free!” a voice screamed thrilled.

Victoria fluttered around in the air surprisingly happy. She’d be able to return to normal and head home. Oh how she missed home!

A boy who was no older than 12 climbed out of the shambles in his green outfit before trotting around light heartedly.

“Peter!” Tinkerbell shouted before flying toward him.

They watched Tinkerbell pick and pull at his clothes with giggles. “You’re back! Thank goodness!”

Victoria watched them anxiously before clearing her tiny throat.

“Ah!” Tinkerbell suddenly recalled them. “Peter, I brought them to save you!”

“Ah…thank you!” Peter Pan turned toward them with a smile. “Let me help you.” Then she turned to Tinkerbell. “Thank you.”

They watched Tinkerbell fly around overjoyed before Peter Pan stepped toward them.

“Ah…thank god!” Chorong cried out a few minutes later underneath an overgrown tree.

Victoria let out a huge sigh of relief as she patted herself. She was finally normal sized again and her sisters were in their adult bodies. She didn’t think she’d want to fly anymore after tonight’s incident nor did she think she wanted to see Tinkerbell again.

“I never thought I’d feel so good about myself,” Victoria muttered to herself and moved her toes around in her shoes crushing the soil underneath her.

“So…we can go home now, right?” Namjoo questioned.

“Yes,” Peter Pan answered, “I can take you back. Before that, as a token of appreciation, is there anything you would like me to do for you?”

Victoria turned to stare at him.

“Peter is capable of doing anything,” Tinkerbell added. “It’s Neverland here afterall. All dreams are possible.”

Victoria felt her eyes flow toward the ground before she turned to look at her sisters who glanced back at her. In her head she could see herself walking hand in hand with their mom. There were so many memories, but such little time had been spent together. When their mother should have been alive to see them walk down the aisle to their beloved groom and watch them have children; she was already gone.

The greatness of time had cut off so much from their lives. Victoria wanted nothing, but one thing.

The expression in Namjoo and Chorong’s eyes stilled with understanding as they allowed her to take over the decision. Her sistes would want this as well. They had had less time than she with their mom.

“Can we see our mom again?” Victoria asked.

A mom of silence passed. Tinkerbell’s wings made quiet ringing bell noises as she flew beside Peter Pan. A stark smile sat on her lips all the while before the corners of Peter’s lips moved toward his ears and nodded with a complete smile.

“Then…shall we go?” Peter Pan questioned.

It felt like a fog draped over them before they were suddenly back at their house. The rush of loud footsteps past the staircase

“Hoon, please!” their mother, Han Sook ran after Namjoo’s dad and grabbed onto his arm. “Not like this. Don’t leave me. What am I going to do without you? What about the girls?”

He flung her arm off harshly, “They’re your problem! I have nothing to do with them! Jihyun was right. It was a waste of time here with you. I’m going back to Daegu.”

Their mother cried heavily and reached out for his arm again in an attempt to drag him away from the door. “Please, don’t go! I’m sorry. I love you, please. I’d do anything, anything you want. I’ll give it all to you. Don’t do this to us.”

She shook her head in utter pain. An expression of sympathy almost crossed his face before he pulled his arm out of her hold in a gentler way this time.

“If you need money raising her, I’ll send you money,” he told, “but I don’t want you or her. I’m not ready for this kind of life.”

They listened to the door close and their mom weep heartbrokingly by the doorway before a 9 year old Victoria walked toward her.

“Mommy?” Victoria called out with no absolute knowledge about what had just happened.   

Her mom turned to look at her with a face streaked with tears before pulling her in for a hug.

“It’s ok, it’s ok, honey,” her mom ran her hands over her cheeks, patted her back, and struggled to her feet. “Go upstairs and play with your sisters. It’ll be ok.”

Young Victoria watched her mother stumble away crying quietly before running up the stairs.

Another fog came down before a chubby Chorong ran into the kitchen. A scent of fresh cookies swirled in the air upon her loud footsteps.

“Mommy, mommy! Victoria stole my dress! I wanted to wear it, but Victoria took it! Tell her to give it back!” Chorong whined.

“I did not!” Victoria refuted following her into the kitchen. “Yesterday Chorong didn’t even want it!”

“What did I tell you girls about sharing?” their mother asked smoothing out dough on the table.

“But Namjoo doesn’t have to share!” Chorong complained.

“You’re too fat for her clothes!” Victoria shot at her.

“Mom! Victoria called me fat!” Chorong stomped her feet and threw an arm out to point her finger at Victoria.

Their mother glanced at them with an amused smile, “Victoria, what did I tell you about name-calling.”

“But it’s true!” Victoria stuck her head out as if emphasize a point.

Their mother smiled at them before saying, “Your mom’s making cookies right now. Lets fight another time, ok?”

“How are you making cookies?” Chorong asked dropping the argument right away.

She walked over to her mother while Victoria walked to the other side.

“What’s this?” Victoria asked pointing to a bag of flour. “White rice?” Then she stared at the name on the bag, “Fl…floor?”

“It’s flour!” Chorong stood on her tip toes and leaned over to shout at Victoria.

“I knew that!” Victoria fought back before accidentally knocking the bag over onto the table.

Chorong let out a big gasp and covered with her tiny, but fat hands. “You’re in trouble!”

“Sorry mommy,” Victoria apologized.

“Tsk…ok you two,” their mother said reaching over to poke her finger into the pile of flour then rubbed white streaks across Victoria and Chorong’s faces. “Punishment for you two.”

“What’s that?” Namjoo’s voice squeaked by the doorway with her teddy bear tucked under her arms. “Me too! Me too!”

“Not you, booger!” Chorong stuck her tongue out at Namjoo who was running toward them on short legs.

“Mommy, me want too!” Namjoo cried out tugging on her mom’s apron.

“All right, all right,” their mother gave in and brushed her finger against Namjoo’s face. “You too.”  

“Mom too!” Victoria laughed running her whole hand into the pile of flour before streaking it across their mom’s face.

“Mom too!” Chorong and Namjoo squeaked wiping their hands into the flour before laughter and squeals filled the kitchen.

In the next memory they were all sitting in the car singing together. They were driving over a bridge then past a corn field and a cow farm. Victoria turning to look at their beautiful mother smiling and staying on beat with each other. Namjoo and Chorong sung loudly from the backseat; Namjoo cradling her teddy bear in her arms, Chorong chewing on candy.

It was this moment of happiness that they often yearned for, but were never able to retrieve.

In the next hour they were running around the Songdo Campground as their mother lugged their belongings into their tent and cut up beef to grill. Victoria chased after her sisters calling Chorong names to purposely get her angry. Namjoo would run for a short distance until she tired and walked up to other families where they would let her eat their grilled meat.

When Chorong and Victoria saw this they would chase her away and ask for food for themselves until their mother called for them.

“Don’t run around too much, you’re going to get yourself dirty,” their mother warned brushing dirt off Namjoo’s knees. “You too, Victoria,” her mother said brushing dirt off her shoulder.

Chorong snickered at them from the side, “I’m the only one clean here aren’t I, mom?”

“Yes, Chorong, good job,” her mother congratulated patting her head.

“Mom, I want to go swimming!” Victoria told chewing on her food.

“Me too, me too!” Namjoo jumped along with her.

“You don’t even know how to swim!” Chorong told.

“But I can do it!” Namjoo retaliated.

“Mom, lets go swimming,” Victoria pleaded. A few minutes later Victoria was kicking around the water screaming, “Mom! Look at me!”

“No! Look at me!” Chorong shouted splashing around in the water as she sat by the shore.

“Be careful! Don’t go too far out!” their mother called out. “Victoria! Make sure Namjoo doesn’t get into the deep waters!”

“Ok!” Victoria yelled in reply, because making her mom proud had been one of the most important things to her.

After they left the water their mom grabbed a passing father and asked him to take a photo of them together. Victoria proudly grasped onto her mother’s arm, Chorong; her other side, and Namjoo standing shyly in their mother’s arm. A soft breeze came by before Victoria pulled on the greatest smile she ever remembered. The smiles that belonged to them that day disappeared when their mother died.  

“One, two, three,” he counted before snapping the picture of them.

When Victoria woke up she was lying in her bed between her sisters. She quietly stared up at the ceiling before those tears swung out the corner of her eyes.

Victoria wiped the tears away slightly embarrassed before laughing, “Why am I crying?”

She caught Chorong sniffing beside her and felt her heart ache. They missed their mother more than words could make out.

“Mom loved baking, huh?” Namjoo quietly asked digging the side of her face into the pillow. “She was always baking after dad left.”

“I miss those days,” Chorong added. “If I could go back, I’d want to stay eight forever.”

“We don’t laugh the same way we used to. Would mom be sad knowing that?” Victoria wondered. “As we grow older; nothing’s the same. It’s so different without her.”

“Ah…I miss her,” Namjoo curled up beside Victoria.

“Me too.” Chorong agreed.

“Me too.” Victoria added.

>_____<;;

“Do you think we’d have to go see the Grim Reaper?” Chorong asked the next morning. “He still needs to keep his part of the deal.”

“Oh yea,” Victoria nodded drinking coffee from her mug. “We should head out when there’s time.”

“You mean when you have time,” Namjoo corrected without looking up from her phone.

“Sure, yea, that’s what I meant,” Victoria said with a tone of sarcasm.

“Why not tonight?” Chorong wondered.

“Ah…well…” Victoria began. “I have plans.”

“Oho!” Namjoo sounded looking up from her phone.

“I see,” Chorong slowly nodded her head. “So that’s why.”

“It’s not what you’re thinking.” Victoria tried.

Chorong shrugged, “Well, it’s ok. I have a date with Suho too.”

Victoria let out a snort with a short laugh unable to defeat her sisters.

“Then take your time,” Victoria inched her eyes wider.

“Oh I will,” Chorong raised her eyebrows, “don’t come back home.”

Victoria nearly choked on her coffee as Namjoo laughed.

“You said you’re meeting with Chanyeol later?” Chorong asked on the way out of the house.

Namjoo nodded.

“Suho and I are going to be renting some movies later…”

“You want us to join you guys?” Namjoo slightly frowned at the suggestion of a double date.

“Well why not?” Chorong wondered.

Namjoo let out a short laugh, “No. You two mooch your way. I don’t want to watch my sister making out with her other half.”

“Yah!”

“Neither would I want to have a triple date,” Victoria said squeezing in between them as she made her way down the stairs.

“Fine!” Chorong shouted after her. “I’ll make it happen some day! You’ll regret it!”

Namjoo raised her brow and turned to look at Chorong, “You really have your hopes up.”

“You too,” Chorong stated determined she’ll get her way. “By the way, who’s winning the twenty dollar bet? Me or you?”

“I don’t remember,” Namjoo replied, “anyway, just don’t get us into any more strange dilemmas.”

“Hey, I should be saying that,” Chorong reminded.

Namjoo raised her hand up to wave as she walked down the rest of the steps.

As Chorong watched her go she shouted unaware of the blue halo on their doorstep, “Don’t worry! It’s most likely you or Victoria who gets in trouble!”  

Too caught up in watching Namjoo leave Chorong didn’t hear the door open behind her until it swung shut. Surprised she spun around to stare at the closed door with a frown. The beeping of a car horn stole her attention and she turned around to see Suho’s car in the street.

Dropping her suspicious gaze she hurried toward him. 

***Whohohoho!! New trouble awaits! More excitement next chapter and romance for ChanJoo at last!

***By the way, if you haven't caught it yet I have a oneshot continuation Part Time Lover up for HunJoo as well as a short story Fragments of That Summer and finally HanJoo's story after all their three unhappy endings City Blues is up and ready to go!